DOGTRIPPING

A mystery novelist’s account of how he became a dog rescuer and moved cross-country with his “very unusual, very large, very hairy family” of eccentric canines.

When Rosenfelt (Leader of the Pack, 2012, etc.) met Debbie Myers, the woman who became his second wife, he never imagined that they would go on to become partners in both life and dog rescuing. Myers was already an avid dog lover who lived with a golden retriever named Tara. As Rosenfelt’s relationship with Myers developed, so did his interest in dogs. After Tara died, the two decided to honor her memory by working as dog-shelter volunteers and then by starting their own rescue group. As the pair entered into full-blown “dog lunacy,” the number of dogs they rescued reached, at its height, 42. Over the years, they would rescue thousands of animals that otherwise would have been euthanized. But Rosenfelt focuses primarily on the dogs he and Myers adopted. Each of the 25 they took in had a unique personality. Yet amazingly, each was able to find acceptance in the loud, hairy pack they formed. Their most difficult challenge as a “family” didn’t come from illness or death, however. It came instead from the move Rosenfelt and Myers decided to make from California to Maine, the story of which the author interweaves into the narrative of his experiences as a canine foster parent. With the help of nine equally dog-crazy volunteers and “three GPSs to make it foolproof,” they loaded up three RVs with 25 dogs and set out for the East Coast. Their five-day “Woofabago” adventure across America not only restored their faith in humanity, but also reaffirmed the already deep bonds that existed between them and their beloved four-legged friends.